Students savor a tasty test

Sophomore Matt Shaffer checks out a sample salad and sandwich.

4:36 p.m., Dec. 8, 2005--Corporate chefs from Nestle and McCormick tested their newest offerings by providing samples to UD students at Pencader Dining Hall on Dec. 5.

The verdict: Memphis-style beef steak sandwiches and chili- garlic-chicken steak sandwiches were hits with the students. Other favorites included the Thai salad and escalloped apples with granola and sun-dried cranberries.

Taste testings, held eight times this semester, always draw interested students, according to Robin A. Moore, senior food service director.

Freshman psychology major Matt Schaeffer pronounced the Memphis-style beefsteak sandwich spicier and preferable to the standard cheese steak fare.

Courtney Irving, a sophomore English major from Hockessin, liked the Thai salad with chicken.

That’s pretty much what Dennis Gavagan, a corporate chef for Nestle, predicted. He said college students like Asian foods and they generally like "big" flavors--very spicy, very sugary and very sour.

Chef Dennis Gavagan of Nestle and coworker Sara Diedrich dish out taste-test salads.

On Monday, Gavagan was dishing the Thai salad and a Caesar salad with sun-dried tomatoes that he nicknamed Brutus. He said the chefs visit universities and businesses, varying their fare to appeal to regional tastes: “It has a lot to do with the background of the students--where they come from and what kinds of foods they like. If you ‘re near Philly and you don’t do an authentic cheese steak, you’re going to get popped for it.”

John Prann, sales executive for KeyImpact, the company that distributes McCormick spices, said adding spices to cheese steaks and salads works better with young people than testing the same spices on pork roast or other heavy dinner entrees.

The taste tests sway the UD menu, too, Moore said. A whole-wheat pizza crust that garnered a 93.4 percent favorable rating in September has been added to the dining hall lineup. A tempura-batter chicken dish that scored 97.1 in October will be added next spring.

To entice students to fill out the questionnaires, Prann said his company offered four $25 Wawa gift certificates awarded by lottery to those who completed the comment cards. The winners were: sophomore Courtney Irving, senior Melissa Kunisky, freshman Heather Robbins and freshman Alan Wilkinson.

Article by Kathy Canavan
Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson

E-mail this article

Subscribe to UDaily

Subscribe to crime alert e-mail notification